My experiences of teaching biology in Mulbadaw Secondary School and adventures throughout Tanzania.

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

The Future Freaks Me Out

This title isn’t really completely true, just a reference to Motion City Soundtrack

Yesterday was definitely one of my favorite days/nights in Tanzania thus far. It wasn’t the most smooth, but definitely one of the most fun. I went into Katesh to meet up with 2 of the PCV’s that are closest to me at site, Duncan and Justin. Justin actually lives in Katesh, so we all crashed at his place which is really close to the center of town. So, I took my first bus from Mulbadaw into Katesh at like 8am. I hadn’t quite had the experience of actually flagging down an entire bus (I’ve done dalas before) for me, so Charlotte walked me to the “stop” (aka the edge of the road) and when we saw the bus coming past town, I crossed the street and flagged it down. As the bus muddled on through the dust and over the rocky, bumpy road, I wavered to the back and found a seat. Almost exactly an hour later, we arrived in Katesh. Finding Justin couldn’t have been easier (just look for the only white person) and we walked to his house, which was small but cozy and super welcoming. He’s had like 5 PCV’s come before him, so the place is really broken in, but it was still nice. He also has a dog, named Batman, who is the perfect balance of clingy, but not too clingy. And super sweet. So when Duncan rolled around, we went to grab Chai at this little place with super yummy, flaky chapatti. After that, we wandered around the safi duka, the Pick n Pay, then we went to my fundi to try to get my dress fitted better. Soon, though, since we had nothing else productive to do, we started bar hopping. It was so much fun just relaxing and swapping gossip on the experienced PCV’s and my class (of which, I will admit, I’m the resident gossip...(insert guilty smile here)) Between crazy travel stories to love connections, there was quite a lot to cover. And that doesn’t include the usual commentary on ridiculous run-ins with Tanzanias. Oh, misunderstandings are just a daily routine! So, the rest of the day was spent alternating drinks with food and stops to visit dukas that Justin knows the owners of, including his counterpart. I even made an exception and had some of what they claim to be “the best kiti moto in country” Kiti moto is pork that cooked SO deliciously. I loved loved it. I don’t plan on eating meat regularly still, but I could fo sho not pass that up. So, after it was decently dark, and being borderline harassed/hit on at the last bar, we headed home (I love being out with guys because it cuts down on the harassment and heckling that you had to deal with. It’s so much more less stressful. So, around 11 we wandered home, watched the movie 21, polished off a tube of Pringles and passed out. So great. : )I woke up around 10, which was the latest I’d slept in like two weeks. And it rocked. We grabbed some Chai again, watched House and spent about an hour searching for this jacket that I was convinced I’d lost the previous night. For some reason, I wasn’t too worried, because things that you lose here seem to have a way of coming back around to you. And, of course, when we returned home, Justin found it on the floor, under a poster that’d fallen down the night before. Winner winner chicken dinner. I caught the 1:30 bus home and, lucky for me, ran into one of my neighbors on the bus. He even helped me get off at the right stop (I was just going to wait until we got to the actual town of Mulbadaw, but our actual compound is located before that in a stop that you have to specially request). Since I got shoved to the back of the bus b/c I was one of the later ones to board, shoving my way past like 20 people that were standing in the aisle wasn’t too appealing, so I was going to wait to get off, but, no worries, because he helped me with that. So, getting home was nice, and I was dead tired. I relaxed, went for another nice run and then had some stir fry that charlotte cooked (delish!) and a lemon square, also of charlottes doing. So good! So, tomorrow is a day stocked full of chores, hopefully a run or two, and maybe a visit to the neighbors. Oye! I need to work on my Kiswahili!